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The Florida Supreme Court approve a referee's findings of misconduct but rejected as unduly lenient a proposed 90 day suspension. Rather, the court imposed a suspension of 18 months followed by three years probation. The attorney had entered no contest pleas to five criminal charges, including two felonies. The felonies involved possession of cocaine and battery on a law enforcement officer. The lawyer "[m]ost significantly" had failed to notify the bar of the determinations of guilt. The court rejected the "reliance on counsel" defense to the non-report as "utterly incredible." Although the court rejected a finding below that the lawyer had engaged in decetive practices and found substantial mitigation, "the fact that under [bar rules], his nolo contendere pleas to two felony charges constitute determinations of guilt, coupled with the inexcusable fact that he concealed those pleas from the bar for more than seven years, requires the imposition of a lenghty suspension. " (Mike Frisch)